Accused ex-Hezbollah member referred to as “god of death”

By Guillermo Contreras :
May 29, 2013
: Updated: May 30, 2013 8:09am

In the defense's version, Wissam Allouche was a former linguist for the U.S. Army who ran a gas station in Northeast San Antonio as he became an American citizen.

But to counterterrorism officials, Allouche, 44, belonged to Hezbollah, falsely claimed to be a U.S. special forces officer during visits to Fort Sam Houston, and even tried to hook up with women at the post, possibly to gain access to sensitive information.

The two pictures emerged during a bail hearing Wednesday for Allouche, whose own statements recorded by investigators or stated in interviews often were contradictory about his allegiances to Hezbollah.

They prompted U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad to declare: “It is difficult to determine how much is true or not.”

Allouche was arrested by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force here last week after being indicted on charges of not disclosing, during his quest to obtain his U.S. citizenship, his membership in the Amal militia and Hezbollah in Lebanon in the 1980s.

He's also charged with not disclosing his prior membership in those groups when he applied for a security clearance with the Defense Department as he sought a contracting job.

Before 2009, Allouche worked for L-3 Communications, which provides linguistic services for the U.S. military, and he was deployed for several months to Iraq. He has lived in the U.S. since about 2002, and once owned Windcrest Mobil, a gas station at Walzem Road and Interstate 35, his lawyer said.

He's not charged specifically with espionage or terrorism.

Hezbollah, conceived by Muslim clericks, was formed in the 1980s in the wake of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, and has been considered a terrorist group by the U.S. since 1997, according to testimony and news reports.

Some reports said Hezbollah was formed by members of the Amal movement, and other reports say Hezbollah gets support from Iran and Syria.

For more than three years, the task force has been investigating Allouche, and even used an undercover person to record conversations with him, authorities said.

The FBI raided his then-home in Universal City in 2011, and found documents which they claim he fabricated to falsely show he had security clearances, membership in U.S. special forces and Defense Department intelligence units.

“He admitted on tape that he was a member of Amal and that he was a commander of Hezbollah,” prosecutor Mark Roomberg told the judge, who agreed to keep Allouche behind bars pending trial.

Allouche entered a not guilty plea to the charges, and his lawyer, Cynthia Orr, challenged the government's characterization of her client.

Much of “the evidence comes from his disgruntled ex-wife and his disgruntled ex-father-in-law,” Orr told U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad.

Orr argued Allouche's past did not become an issue until 2010 — after a bitter divorce with Jennifer R. Allouche, a member of the U.S. Army. The two met in Germany in 1999, and they were married for 14 years, Orr said.

Their divorce was finalized in 2009 in Bexar County, a few months after Wissam Allouche became a naturalized U.S. citizen, according to court records and testimony.

“No derogatory information was found about his character, loyalty and honesty,” an official with the Homeland Security Department wrote about Allouche, and he was granted citizenship, according to documents submitted at Wednesday's hearing.

But the department also asked the Joint Terrorism Task Force to take a look.

Army Criminal Investigations agent Jeff Cram, a member of the task force, testified that an investigation revealed Allouche's ties. And, Cram said, Allouche was seen by at least two people at Fort Sam dressed in U.S. military uniform displaying insignias from special forces.

He also boasted to women on base of being in the special forces, Cram testified.

While Orr argued that it could have simply been flirtation, Roomberg and Cram alleged a “honey pot” or a “honey trap” situation — recruiting someone into espionage through a romantic relationship.

“So being flirtatious would give him access” to sensitive information? Roomberg asked.

“Yes, sir,” Cram responded.

Cram also testified the task force received eight photos from a source showing Allouche during his days with Amal and Hezbollah. In them, he's holding assault rifles or rocket propelled grenades, Cram said.

“He was given at least three aliases,” Cram testified.

One meant “god of death,” Cram said, adding that Allouche was also known for “acting crazy or acting dangerously.”

If convicted of lying in his naturalization forms, Allouche faces up to 10 years in prison, and his citizenship would be revoked. He faces up to five years for the charge of lying on security-clearance forms.